Animator in Residence Drew Roper talks stop motion, Tim Burton and a bit about his day job.

Hey…

I’m Nick and I’m the new Research Assistant for FLIP. Today I was asked to do a quick interview with Light House’s resident animator Drew Roper and find out what he’s currently up to.

NP – So what are you working on right now?

DR – I’m making a stop motion animation for a local fashion brand, Luke, and explaining their history of denim. It’s a stop motion animation so it’s made with puppets, sets and a camera, rather than on a computer or by drawing.

NP – Okay. So what’s the story then?

DR – It starts off with a guy in a pub back in the 1800s who claims he is the creator of denim, but because he was a grafter and in the pub a lot, people didn’t believe him. Basically he was a foundry worker in the Black Country, they would tend to get burnt from the hot smelt and so they needed to create a thicker material, hence denim. It then goes on to say that the Americans stole the idea, hence why it was massive in America… ‘cause of the jeans…and the cowboys…when really it was created by a guy called Serge de Nîmes who was French. Then Luke claims that he’s brought it back in 1977, as this is all about [the brand] Luke 1977, and him bringing back his heritage of when his ancestor created it… it’s his old gimmick, it’s not true, it’s a tale but it’s quite cool how he’s gone about telling it.

NP – Oh right, I’m guessing you’re really busy at the moment then?

DR – There’s a lot of work involved and at the moment I’m working on the dialogue. This would normally have been done weeks ago however we’ve been waiting for a famous voice artist, comedian and actor to do the voice, which he has now done and is brilliant. And so at the minute I’m drafting at what frame and at what point I need to move his mouth, so it’s mainly lip-synching at the moment. That’s week one of production.

NP – Okay that sounds cool. So who’s the famous voice artist you’ve got?

DR – Mark Williams, the actor, who is from The Fast Show and is Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter films…I had the privilege of working with him last week and so now I’m just lip-synching his voice.

NP – Fantastic! So have you got anything else in the pipeline right now?

DR – I’m working part of this weekend and then on Sunday I’m going down to London for the week as I’m working on the new Walt Disney/Tim Burton film…the new puppet film where I’ll be helping to set up the puppet hospital which is where they make and repair their puppets and do mass productions of them. There’s another company that makes the puppets called Mackinnon and Saunders and they send down all their moulds for everything so then they can just remake those in the hospital. This saves Mackinnon and Saunders doing it. So I’ll be helping set up that and then I might be able to set up a test shot. So it’s a lot of running, shifting and lifting but it’s for a week and it’s easing my name out there and it’s hopefully going to give me a better opportunity of getting a job at the end of this, when this should be finished…the 30^th June, so I’ve got 7 weeks, well 6 weeks because of the Tim Burton thing.

NP – Wow…yeah that sounds like a great opportunity. So it’s nonstop then?

DR – There’s a lot of work to do, but I can do it. Yeah! So after next week, I’ll be starting to shoot and animate and hopefully have it finished by the end of June.

NP – Great. Thanks for your time; I’ll let you get back to work.

You can find out more about Drew and his animation at www.yamination.com.

Look out for more posts about Drew or other animated goings on from myself or any of the others involved in FLIP in the coming weeks.

Nick